A magical winter wonderland - how one bride's vision became a reality

by Carly Rager, Carly Rager Design & Event Planning

The most signifigant part of any wedding budget is usually spent on the reception. On February 27th, I had the honor of assisting Amanda and Jason with their wedding. The decorating began the night before right after the wedding rehearsal just before the dinner. Blaire and I met the bride and groom along with some of their family and friends at Waterstreet Events Center. We began arranging the tables to a likable floor plan, covering the tables with the beautiful midnight blue linens Amanda had rented, as well as slip covering all the chairs with the matching midnight blue with ivory sashes. (see video below)

I asked Amanda to have a few friends available for this task. It is very time consuming task and next to impossible for 1 or 2 people to do alone the day of the wedding if they are handling all the other tasks for the day. I had a brief session with them to go over how to do it and achieve the look Amanda wanted.

Upon arriving Saturday morning I was very excited to see that they had completed the chair covering and I simply needed to re-tie some of the sashes. The amazing Courtney, from Sango Village Florist met me there that morning just to offer a helping hand.


I can not tell you how much I appreciated having one extra set of hands. Blaire was with the wedding party working their way through all the pictures. There was a small mishap with the linen supplier. They sent the wrong number of linens with the damask print, but I quickly improvised and no one ever knew what the original plan was.

Amanda's vision was a magical, crystal, winter wonderland theme with a medieval twist. She had purchased tons of crystals and sparkly things to spread throughout the room. I began with placing runners on the family tables and then spreading crystals in the center of all the tables.



Amanda had purchased a variety of glassware for Sango Village Florist to work their magic with. There were many styles of centerpieces from low to medium to tall. All uniquely designed with Amanda's theme in mind. They used a variety of white flowers, silver bear grass and silver branches. We placed the different arrangements on alternating tables allowing the guests something different to look at everywhere they turned.

The couple had decided on some really nice favors for their guests and they were displayed in a treasure chest. There was also a camera and printer displayed next to the favors giving the guests the opportunity to take a picture and add it to a guest book where they could personalize a message for the couple.


There was also an ice martini luge which was a hit with all the guests. It was back lit with blue lighting provided by Sound Machine DJ. The bride's family and friends provided the food preparation and services. The groom's mother made and designed both cakes as well as the branch archway that greeted all the guests when they enter the reception hall. We hung sparkling snowflakes off the branches completing the winter wonderland feel.

The guests had an amazing time dancing the night away. I really enjoyed working with this couple on such an important day in their lives. Please visit my blog CarlyRager.com to see some of the still shots I took of some of the details from their day. I would also like to thank to always wonderful and oh so talented Danielle Lear of Turning Point Productions for documenting my work. See the video below. I really love working with such reliable and talented vendors. It really makes my job easier.

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